United States vs Hogu Reyes, GR No.

1645

FACTS
The defendants, Hugo Reyes, Gonzales Blas, Fausto Satorre, Teodorico
Baustista, Pascual Galan, and Crispulo Mendoza, were charged with the offense of
playing a prohibited game, to wit, the game of monte. The defendant Hugo Reyes
was convicted by the Court of First Instance and sentenced to imprisonment for
one month and one day and to pay a fine of 625 pesetas.

ISSUE
Is the accused guilty of the crime charged in the information

DECISION
NO. It is neither charged in the complaint nor is it shown by the evidence
that the house in which the defendants were found playing monte was a house used
for the purpose of gambling. The supreme court of Spain, by a decision on the 28th
day of December, 1887, held in construing this article of the Penal Code that the
playing must occur in a house used for the purpose of gambling, whether it be
public or private; but if it happened that the playing had taken place by mere
accident in such place, the persons engaged in playing the prohibited game are not
guilty of the offense defined and made punishable in article 343.